The boy from Allahabad, who performs bare foot, created history when he won the bronze in men’s floor exercise event at the Games.
On Sunday, as a couple of journalists entered the Athletes Village gates, we bumped into the manager of the gymnastics team. Accompanying the manager was Indian gymnast Ashish Kumar.
As we stood there chatting with the manager, Ashish, just a few feet away, appeared to be lost in his own world.
Even at the Village entrance hall, he was in a state of trance, moving his hands and feet rhythmically, playing the moves in his mind that he was to perform the next day. We wanted to talk to him about the absconding coach Vladimir Chertkov. The manager requested us: “Let him be. He is focused on his performance.”
Ashish lives in the world of gymnastics. He drinks, eats and sleeps it. He is not from the China’s famed, world-class gymnastics academy. His strength is his single-minded determination. And when you have set your heart on something — Nothing is Impossible!
The boy from Allahabad, who performs bare foot, created history when he became the first Indian to win a medal in gymnastics. Ashish won the bronze in men’s floor exercise event at the Games.
A product of the UK Mishra Academy in Allahabad, Ashish started training in 1994 at the age of four.
Lacking the assistance of world-famous coaches, Ashish is his own coach. He has nearly 150 clips on his mobile and laptop of the best moves in gymnastics. “I have a lot of clips of the all-time great Russian gymnast, Alexei Nemov (of 2000 Sydney Olympics fame). I try to understand and perfect the moves I like,” Ashish said.
No wonder, everyone at the gymnastics hall here were stunned by the technical perfection exhibited by a gymnast coming from a country with no background in the sport.
Ashish believed he could have performed better if he had some more time to prepare after the Commonwealth Games. “I could have done better if I had one and a half months to prepare. Though, I am very happy to be the first gymnast from India to win a medal in Asiad.” As to why he performs bare feet, he said: “I feel comfortable. I am used to it.”
His immediate thought on winning the medal was with his family in Allahabad. He understands that his word will carry a lot more weight now and the first things he wants to do is to try and make his father’s life a bit easier.
“My father, who works in the Railways, leads a very tough life. He is posted at Kanpur and has spent half his life commuting daily to work from Allahabad to Kanpur (nearly 100 kms), leaving very early in the morning and returning late in the night. He has been following this schedule for nearly 20 years now. My mother remains disturbed because of this. We have requested the Railway authorities many times to transfer my father to Allahabad, but nothing has happened. This time I will myself go and request them, hopefully we will be heard,” Ashish said.
If Ashish is successful in sorting out his father’s problem, for him it will be the biggest reward.
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